KYIV, Ukraine — In what may have been an act of desperation to try to regain Moscow’s attention and affection, heavily armed pro-Russia separatists in violence-racked eastern Ukraine tested the mettle of the country’s new president, Petro Poroshenko, on his first day in the job by seizing Donetsk airport.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — President Vladimir Putin pledged Friday that Russia would respect the results of Ukraine's presidential election, a strong indication the Kremlin wants to cool down the crisis.

MOSCOW — Russia on Friday accused the West of triggering the Ukrainian crisis by its "megalomania," as fighting continued in Ukraine's east between pro-Russia insurgents and government forces two days before a presidential election.

DONETSK, Ukraine — That didn’t take long.
Emboldened by what was claimed to be a landslide victory in Sunday’s referendum on the future of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, a leading separatist leader fuelled the tension Monday by asking Russian President Vladimir Putin “to consider the absorption” or annexation into Russia of the impoverished coal mining region near Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.